Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Edition by Ferguson Everett; McHugh Michael P. ; Norris Frederick W

Author:Ferguson, Everett; McHugh, Michael P. ; Norris, Frederick W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1460792
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Isometric view of the house church (ca. 230) at Dura Europos, Syria. The house was built around a central courtyard; the large rectangular room on the left was the assembly hall and the room with the canopy in the upper right corner of the house was the baptistery. (R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, 4th ed., 1986; © Yale University Press Pelican History of Art.)

Christian writers of the third century also seem to reflect a transformation to known church buildings. Such edifices were at times called oikos ekktēsias (Latin domus ecclesiae—“house of the church”) or oikos kyriakou (“Lord’s house”—cf. Eusebius, H.E. 7.30.19; 8.1.5). Although the terminology has been inconsistent, for reasons of clarity it is preferable to distinguish between the unrenovated “house church” of the New Testament period and the renovated domus ecclesiae, beginning especially in the third century. At the same time, a distinction is made between these simpler church edifices (which may have evolved from a variety of existing buildings) and the beginnings of a formal church architecture with the introduction of the Christian basilica under the emperor Constantine in the early fourth century.

L. Michael White

Bibliography

F.V. Filson, “The Significance of Early Christian House Churches,” JBL 58 (1939):105–112; E.A. Judge, The Social Organization of Christian Groups in the First Century (London: Tyndale, 1960); C.H. Kraeling, The Christian Building (New Haven: Yale UP, 1967); J.M. Petersen, “House Churches in Rome,” VChr 23 (1969):264–272; R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, 4th ed. (New York: Penguin, 1986); R. Banks, Pauls Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Historical Setting (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980); E.M. Meyers and J.F. Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981); WA Meeks, The First Urban Christians (New Haven: Yale UP, 1982); A.J. Malherbe, Social Aspects of Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983); H.-J. Klauck, Hausgemeinde und Hauskirche im frühen Christentum (Stuttgart: Katholische Bibelwerk, 1983); S. Barton, “Paul’s Sense of Place: An Anthropological Approach,” NTS 32 (1986):225–246; P.C. Finney, “Early Christian Architecture: The Beginnings (A Review Article),” HThR 81 (1988):319–339; H.O. Maier, “Religious Dissent, Heresy and Households in Late Antiquity,” VChr 49 (1995):49–63; L.M.White, The Social Origins of Christian Architecture (Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996).

See also Basilica; Church; Dura-Europos

Humility

Christian virtue of lowering oneself. The New Testament twice quotes a well-known passage from Proverbs 3:34: “God opposes the haughty, but to the humble he gives grace” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Indeed, throughout the New Testament are countless allusions to humility as the appropriate ethical posture for the Christian. Colossians 3:12, for instance, enjoins the Christian to put on “mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,” characteristics said to be the components of genuine love (Col. 3:14; cf. 1 Cor. 13:4–5). This emphasis on humility is even more often articulated in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ teaching, but with what might strike the reader as an ironic twist: that humility is the pathway to greatness. Those who humble themselves and become like children are the “greatest” in God’s kingdom (Matt. 18:4); similarly,

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